


Atlantica

by Believe_in_the_Journey (orphan_account)



Series: Disney Fanfiction [2]
Category: disney fanfiction
Genre: Ariel is male, Ariel is mute, F/M, Kind sea creature, Lonely Ariel, Shy Ariel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-25 03:52:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3795706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Believe_in_the_Journey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ariel was saved by the kind brother of Ursulus and given immortality to find his true love. <br/>Brooklyn is a shy nerdy girl, fascinated by mystical creatures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Atlantica

**Author's Note:**

> ARIEL IS A UNISEX NAME!!!!!!! Just fyi.   
> Brooklyn and Polus are my OCs. No stealing. (You can ask for Polus, I guess, though)

Ariel’s POV   
I stood on the ship, watching mutely as the only girl I ever loved was married to the man she’d fallen in love with instead. The deal had not been kept on my part. As Princess Erica went to her quarters with her new husband, I could feel myself growing weaker. Eventually, I fell over the side of the ship, my body parts fading and dissolving into foamy white sea water. 

Just as I began to blackout, a creature appeared before me. He looked a lot like Ursulus, except his hair was golden and his eyes shined with kindness. His octopus half was less wild, more of a dark, navy blue then an inky black. He was also scrawnier than what had to be his twin. 

He waved his hand over me and I reformed into a merman. “I am sorry for your fate, little merman. My brother is cruel. He knew your princess was betrothed to another. But I will have mercy on you.”

“Who are you, sir?” I asked, feeling rejuvenated. 

“A friend. My name is Polus. I am the opposite of my brother. My magic does not require deals or payment. So, here is my offer, I can grant you immortality until you find one you love. However, you will be stuck in the form of a human, just as mute as before until you can full-fill your previous deal with Ursulus. As soon as you wed your true love, your voice will be returned to you and you will age at the same speed as your wife. Or you can accept your fate as sea foam.” The sea creature told me. 

Did I really want to get involved in any more magic? But this way, I could find love. Or more heartbreak. Was it worth it? I looked at the man-serpent with his kind eyes and caring expression. “Thank you, Polus. I will accept.” 

“Be careful child, for the pain in your feet and heart will continue until you succeed. I am very sorry for your unfortunate fate. Good luck to you, Ariel.” Polus said, then disappeared. 

My eyes closed and I woke up on a beach, wrapped in the same white sail as the first time. No one was there to greet me, however. I was alone. And this was how it would be. I realized that this time, it was my responsibility to find the one who I truly loved, and who truly loved me. 

 

Brooklyn’s POV

“Mom! I’m going to the library!” I called as I walked out the door. She didn't respond, or at least I didn't hear her respond before I closed the door. The library was only a few blocks from our apartment, so I didn't mind walking. I enjoyed the cool, crisp air rolling off the ocean and towards the rest of the city. The trees had already shed their leaves in preparation for the coming winter. There were tons of others walking, determined to take advantage of the last few days of warmth before it was time to bundle up in thick clothing. By the time I had reached the library, I was out of breath. I had chosen to walk briskly because I wanted to get there before rush hour. 

I searched the aisles for the book I'd looked up before leaving our apartment. I resisted a yelp of triumph when I pulled the book off the shelf. I had already done extensive research on mystical creatures, but my reading list had just today reached mermaids. The last few weeks previously I had been reading about fairies and sprites. I wasn't positive when my interest had started or why, just that I had an obsession. I skimmed through it then decided it was the right one and checked out. I took it to the beach, not intending to swim or anything, just wanting to relax on the sand while I still could. I sat down and started to read, but then noticed some movement on the beach I thought I was alone on. I looked up and noticed a boy with blood-red hair wearing a white long sleeve shirt and white-wash skinny jeans. He really stood out on the otherwise empty beach. He was staring out at the ocean, and from my angle, I could sort of see his face. He looked so alone and longing. I felt really sorry for him. 

I set my book down and walked over to him. I coughed and he turned to face me. I was stunned by how bright his eyes were. They were this gorgeous shade of blue but deep and endless. He looked so young, maybe a year or two older then me, but his eyes told of a much older age. "Hello. I don't think I've seen you here before." 

He just stared at me. Then he wrote something down in a notebook I hadn't noticed before. 

'Do you come here often?' it read.  
"Every day." I said, making sure to look straight at him when I spoke this time. It hadn't occurred to me he might be deaf when I decided to come over here.  
'We must've missed each other. And I'm not deaf. Talking louder won't change anything. I can hear you just fine.'   
I felt my face heat up in embarrassment. 'Sorry. Stupid American instinct. So what happened to your voice?"  
'Accident when I was a kid.' I read.   
"Oh." I said.  
'Why do you come here every day?' he wrote down.  
"I like the way the air feels near the beach. And sometimes I like to let the waves run over my feet. Even in the late fall. Foolish, right?”  
'Not foolish. I do the same thing.' he wrote.  
"So why do you come here?" I asked.  
'The ocean. I feel connected to it.... That sounds weird, right?' He wrote down.  
“Not weird. At least no weirder than a girl, who hates cold weather, dipping her feet in ice cold water on purpose." I smiled.  
'What's your name?' he asked.  
"Brooklyn. Yours?"  
'Ariel. And no, it's not just a girl's name. It is unisex.' he wrote.   
"I know. And I think that's a really awesome name, by the way." I grinned at him.   
'Thanks. People usually think it's dumb.' he wrote, looking a little shy all of a sudden.  
"Well, I think other people are dumb." I laughed. "Hey, this is going to sound weird, but how much do you know about mermaids?"   
His eyes widened and he looked dumbstruck. 'Mermaids? Why?' he wrote quickly.   
"I kind of have an obsession with mythical creatures. Mermaids are the one I chose for this month. I just thought I'd ask if you knew anything." I shrugged.  
He smiled at me. 'I know a little. There's a myth about a kingdom called Atlantica where all the merpeople live. The people can communicate with birds and fish, and they all love to sing, but the royalty has the most melodic voices. Especially the Queen. She was very gentle and had the sweetest voice that could give her children the best dreams.'  
"How do you know all that?" I asked, stunned.   
Ariel shrugged. 'I have an interest in merpeople too. But you should know, there aren't just females. Guys can be half fish too.'  
"Oh. Right, of course. Merpeople, then." I nodded. "Do you want to see my book?"   
He nodded and we walked up the beach to where I'd been sitting. He flipped through the book. 'That's not what they look like at all. They have it all wrong. The tails aren't leathery, they're covered in indestructible white scales that glimmer every color of the rainbow. And the guys have shoulder-length hair and the females have what humans call "pixie-cuts." And they have pointy ears and elvish features.’  
"That's really cool. Did they ever come to land?" I asked.  
'The Queen was scared of humans. She didn't trust them because a ship-wreck killed the King. But one of her sons was curious and wanted to know everything about humans, like you want to know everything about them. He saved a pretty maiden one day from a storm at sea and fell in love with her. A sea creature, named Ursulus, with dark magic granted him legs in exchange for his voice. He wasn't told that walking would be like stepping on broken glass and hot coals. The boy had three days to get the girl to return his love, but the creature had tricked him. The girl was already betrothed and saw the prince as a brother-figure. The boy was forced to watch the girl get married and almost died, dissolving into sea foam.' the boy wrote.  
"That's really sad!" I said, frowning.  
'It doesn't end there. The sea creature's brother, Polus, took pity on him and granted him immortality until he could find the one he loves.'   
"And who was it?" I asked, intrigued.  
He shrugged, holding the book out to me.   
"You remember the name of the Ursulus' brother, but not who he got the happy ending with? Tragic." I said, taking the book and shaking my head.  
'No, this story doesn’t have a happy ending. At least not yet.’ Ariel wrote with a sad expression.   
"Look, I should get going. My mom will freak out if I don't get home soon. Thanks for the story and new information on my favorite subject. Can I see your notebook?" I asked.  
He looked confused, but handed me the notebook. I hurriedly scribbled down my number and handed it back to him before running away. I had also left a short message. 'Text me sometime.' 

***   
It was a week before Ariel texted me. I had pretty much forgotten about the boy on the beach. Not that he wasn't memorable, or attractive or whatever, it was just I had been really busy. What with taking care of my sick mother, doing homework, researching everything I could about a sea creature named Polus, I was rather distracted. However, I was rather stunned to discover there was absolutely nothing about a sea creature named Polus. Even though I managed to find quite a bit about royal merpeople, and the kingdom of Atlantica, there was nothing about the brother of Ursulus. 

Everything I'd found seemed to come from the original story of the Little Mermaid. But there was more that Ariel hadn't told me. Like about the Queen's father that took care of the mer-princes because the Queen was too depressed to spend much time with her sons as each reminded her of one of their father's attributes. The youngest had their father's spirit. He was curious about everything and adventurous. Even though the youngest boy had his father's adventurous spirit and curiosity, he was very quiet except when he sang. He had his mother's gift for singing the sweetest of songs. 

But there was creepy stuff that I hadn't been told as well. Like how they didn't have mortal souls. At all, no soul, no afterlife. There was also the bit where this sea witch actually cut out the tongue of the prince and pureed his tongue with his (Ursulus) blood and then he had to drink a portion of that potion in order to grow legs which was completely sick. And honestly, Ariel had downplayed the amount of pain the prince had gone through to walk. This boy had never walked before and therefore from the moment he had legs the two limbs were a burning, fiery pain. Like there were always these tales about mermaids becoming humans and they just had this sudden gift for walking and dancing. But it wasn't like that. The prince stumbled often and the woman he had stalked and fell in love with as a merman had to pretty much carry the weak and agonized boy to her palace. Keeping in mind the boy was one hundred percent naked. She did on the way, however, find a white sail to cover him with. The pain was so much for the young boy that he passed out from it. 

The story continued the prince growing accustomed to severe pain, and the princess spending much time with him. However the girl only saw him as a brother and married another. The prince, having not earned a human soul through marriage grew weak and fell off the boat, dissolving into sea foam. 

I sat in my chair feeling appalled and rather depressed by this. Just that moment the my phone buzzed and I answered it.

'Hello. I finally got a phone.' the message read.  
'Who is this?' I texted back, feeling weird.  
'Ariel.' came the instant response.   
A smile lit up my face. 'Took u long enough. Thought u'd met some other girl & fascinated her w/ ur stories of merpeople'  
'Nope'  
'Hey, u want 2 go out 4 dinner or something this Friday? I'm not busy.'  
'Really?' Ariel texted back. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. That kind of stung a little bit.  
'Yeah.... I mean if u'd like 2.' I sent.   
"Okay. I would. I mean I'd like to.' Ariel texted back quickly.  
'Okay, I'll see u at 6 on Friday at that Italian place on the corner of Sulley and Boulevard. That work 4 u?' I texted.  
'Sure. See you then.' 

***  
*Ariel's POV*  
I got dressed in the nicest shirt I could find and a pair of white skinny jeans. Then I brushed my hair back, grabbed my notebook and a pen, and walked over to the Italian place she’d suggested. I saw her before she saw me. Her midriff-length ashy blonde hair was curled into tight spirals and pinned it back with bobby pins. With her hair out of her face, I was able to appreciate her dark brown eyes, which popped more due to her black eyeliner, light blue tunic and black leggings. After centuries of failed dating attempts, it’d been years since a girl had affected my heartbeat and breathing, but right now my heart was throwing itself against my ribcage and my lungs were burning from lack of oxygen. I reminded myself what happened when I fell head over heels too fast and that I needed to take it slow. Which would be difficult for me. I was, by nature, impulsive and it was difficult for me to not listen to my emotions. 

I waved at Brooklyn to get her attention and she turned to me with a shy smile. “Hey, Ariel.” she said.

I could only nod and write down, ‘Hi.’ 

She smiled brighter when I passed her the notebook and again my breathing shorted out. She led me inside and got us a table. Once we were seated, she told me about all the things she’d looked up to find out how much of it matched up with my tale. As she explained it all to me, I grew more sad, remembering the time when I learned to write and told my story. The moment computers were invented, I typed up my published tale and it became more popular. Parents read it to their children, but usually changed it just a little so it had a happy ending and wasn’t so grotesque. It made me sad that she had found it. And ashamed. I didn’t want her to know about the foolish mistakes I had made in my life, even if she didn’t know she was talking about me. 

However, she didn’t seem to be mocking the things I did. She explained that she understood the prince hadn’t just left his home for the princess. He’d always dreamed of the land above the water and that the princess was just a sort of… extra for being able to walk on the earth.

“And not to mention, I would do exactly what he did to have a tail.” Brooklyn shrugged.

That took me by surprise and I gave her a confused look.

“I’ve just always wanted to be a mermaid. It sounds so amazing to be able to swim underwater all the time and be so free. Here on land, there’s not as much room. The ocean is so much more vast than the land.” Brooklyn said, a far away look on her face. “I guess the grass really is greener on the other side.” 

‘What does that mean?’ I asked, confused by her last comment. I’d heard people say it before, but I never understood.

“It’s just an expression. It means that people want what they don’t have. For instance, I want blue eyes because I have brown ones, but you probably would like green ones because you have blue ones. Or girls with straight hair want curly.” Brooklyn explained, waving her hands around in a really cute way as she talked that made it obvious she didn’t realize how much she was gesturing. “Cows on one side of the fence want the grass on the other side because they can’t have it.” 

That did make sense. I nodded to show I understood then the waiter came and we ordered our food. Once our food came, our conversation turned to bands and movies we liked. Brooklyn explained her fascination with everything mythical and I had to exert all my willpower in order to not tell her about the creatures and that they were real. We had just ordered dessert when this couple came in. A girl with long, thick, unruly black curls and dark brown eyes. The boy had red-ish-blonde locks and mischievous green eyes. They sat down at the table next us and Brooklyn instantly brightened. 

“Gemma!” she grinned, standing up and hugging the girl. The girl looked stunned, but hugged her back. 

“Brooklyn? What’re you-” a smirk twisted her mouth as she spotted me. “You’re on a date? Peter, I don’t believe it! Our little Brooke-y is finally dating!” 

The boy sitting across from ‘Gemma’ laughed and smiled crookedly at me. “I’m Peter. And you are?”

I stared wide-eyed at the trio and waited for Brooklyn to save me. Brooklyn blushed after the awkward silence stretched for several minutes. “Sorry, I’m being so rude. Peter, Gemma, this is Ariel. Ariel, these are my two best friends in the world, Gemma and Peter.”   
I nodded and Gemma squinted at me. “Is he always this quiet, Brooke?”   
Brooklyn looked mortified at her friend’s stage-whisper and shook her head, whispering in the girl’s ear. Gemma’s eyes went wide and she quickly apologized. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean…” 

I shrugged, as if to say, ‘Don’t worry about it, I get that all the time.’ 

Gemma and Peter sat with us for a while longer and I spent my time of quiet examining the two newcomers. They both had really old eyes. Like they’d been alive for a few milena and had quite a few adventures. However the look was different than the one I saw in my eyes. They’re look was so much happier. As if the years they’d lived had been good ones. I wanted to question them about it, but the last thing I wanted was to be tied up in an asylum. Eventually they left and I insisted on walking Brooklyn home. 

*Brooklyn’s POV*   
The whole week, when I was supposed to be learning more about merpeople, I couldn't focus. I just kept picturing Ariel. I wanted to know so much more about him. I had Googled him out of curiosity and was surprised to discover that an Ariel had published the book about merpeople I'd read that matched up with my Ariel's story. Except, that was impossible. They couldn't be the same people, because that Ariel had written it more than seventy-five years ago. I ran into him at the park and demanded an explanation. Okay, I didn't demand, I beat around the bushes.

"Hey, Ariel!" I grinned, hugging him.   
He smiled and returned the hug. He'd started teaching me sign language so he didn't have to write as much. He signed 'how are you?' And I shrugged.   
"I'm good. But I've been doing more research and I have a question." I said, looking up into his gorgeous cerulean blue eyes.  
'What do you want to know?' he wrote down.  
"So you know that story I started reading last week? Well, it turns out that the author of it shares the same name as you. And you guys look really similar. But that was seventy-five years ago, so it can't be you, so...? Who is it?" I asked.  
Ariel's face paled. He started writing down so much it just made me more nervous. Finally he handed me the notebook.  
'Alright, this is going to take a little to explain. Please don't hate me. That Ariel is me. I wrote that book. And I know all those things about merpeople because... I am a merman. That prince in the story was me. That's why it doesn't have a happy ending. Because I haven't gotten one yet. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I just didn't know you and one can't go around telling random people they had a tail centuries ago and they're immortal. That's one way to earn a one-way ticket to a strait jacket. Please don't be angry. I swear it's true though.'  
My head spun. "You're a.. a merman?" I stuttered in confusion.  
He nodded. I didn't know how to take this. It's one thing to be fascinated in mythology; it's quite another to have a boyfriend claiming he used to breathe underwater several hundred years ago. 'That's also why I can't speak. Ursulus took my tongue.'  
I wanted to hug him. Whether he was psychotic or not, it did not matter. He thought he had all those horrible things happen to him and I wanted to console him for that. It did not matter to me whether it was true or not. It really didn't. So I hugged him. "I'm so sorry, Ariel."  
'You... you believe me?' the look in his eyes, so hopeful and pleading as he handed me the notebook, made me positive.   
"Of course I believe you. I don't know if I believe that you used to be a fish... but I do believe that you believe it, so that's good enough for me. And don't worry, I'm not going to call a psych ward or anything." I smiled, kissing his cheek.  
He hugged me tighter and nuzzled my hair. 'Thank you. That means the world to me.”

After a few minutes of just holding each other, Ariel pulled away with a look of realization. 'Oh, by the way,' he wrote, 'You're friends, Gemma and Peter are immortal. You can see the age in their eyes'

My jaw dropped. "Is everyone I know freaking magical and unaging? News flash: I will die at some point!'

Ariel shook his head fervently. 'Reread the story. The bit with Polus. Though you are correct about your friends...'

I did as he asked and reread the bit with Polus later that day. "'I can grant you immortality until you find one you love. However, you will be stuck in the form of a human, just as mute as before until you can full-fill your previous deal with Ursulus. As soon as you wed your true love, your voice will be returned to you and you will age at the same speed as your wife.'" I read aloud. 

I wasn't sure if I was the girl promised to him, but one day I would find out, and I was willing to find out when the time was right.


End file.
